Leaders are good at unlearning.

There may be no better definition for a closed mind than someone unwilling to change their opinions.  Smart leaders recognize it’s much more valuable to step across mental lines in the sand than to draw them.  One of the most profound and commonly overlooked aspects of learning is recognizing the necessity of unlearning.  ~Mike Myatt

Unlearning put new vocabulary to a common theory of cognitive therapy and leadership behavior.  This theory being that the way we act (or behave) is a result of the way we feel, which is, in turn, a result of the way we think.  And we can change the way we think.

William James (my favorite philosopher) said that “Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.”  James also said “Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.”

Myatt, author of Leadership Matters, says:

No one has all the answers, so why even attempt to pretend that you do?  Show me a person that never changes their mind, and I’ll show you a static thinker who has sentenced his mind to a prison of mediocrity and wasted potential.  The smartest people I know are the most willing to change their minds.  They don’t want to be right, they want the right outcome – they want to learn, grow, develop and mature.  Leaders and their ability to change their mind demonstrate humility, confidence and maturity.  It makes them approachable, and it makes them human.  People are looking for authentic, transparent leaders willing to sacrifice their ego in favor of right thinking.

One of the most powerful questions I've ever been asked is, “Are you willing to say that you could be wrong?”  By saying “yes” to this question, I'm essentially saying that I'm open to unlearning.  I'm willing to let “the way I think” evolve as new information, new perspectives, new ideas, new facts become known.  I'm willing to focus more on the right outcome than being right. 

I've witnessed a number of scenarios where people have argued that when a leader changed their mind or took on a different position that meant they had also changed their principles or values, or were no longer credible, lost integrity, or were not trustworthy.  Wouldn't it actually take a lot more integrity and credibility for them to say that they could be wrong?  Wouldn't allowing their thinking to evolve be a means of living out their principles and values, not changing them?  And wouldn't someone who’s searching for the right outcome rather than being right be more trustworthy?

So why do we hold so tight to the way we think and many times resist unlearning?  Maybe because once we unlearn and change the way we think, we know that the ripple effect could be endless.  How we feel could change and how we behave could change.  Before we know it we've stepped across the mental line in the sand.  As William James said, our life has been altered.  Who knew that unlearning could be so painful yet filled with so much possibility.